Eleven businesses and organisations, including social media giant TikTok and the Philips Foundation, have publicly committed to supporting the social economy ahead of next year’s World Economic Forum. 

The commitment comes as they join 13 existing organisations, including EY, IKEA and Microsoft, in signing the Schwab Foundation’s Rise Ahead Pledge. The Pledge is aimed at addressing the estimated $1.125 trillion funding need that social enterprises face worldwide, as well as ‘maximising the full potential of social innovation’, according to the Schwab Foundation.

Tik Tok is due to share more detail on its commitment to social enterprises

Other new signatories include Automation Anywhere, Banco Davivienda, EDP, GE HealthCare Foundation, Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) Foundation, Jubilant Bhartia Group, Reckitt, Renault Group and Zurich Insurance Group.

How the Rise Ahead Pledge works

The 24 organisations in total have agreed to start new initiatives or expand on existing activities in at least two of six ways to support the social economy.

These include: providing financial or non-financial support to social innovators; buying from social innovators; providing financial support to the social innovation ecosystem; integrating social innovation principles into core business operations, or implementing or expanding programs to support employees to develop social innovation initiatives internally.

The growing number of signatories reflects how social innovation is becoming a strategic business capability, addressing sustainability issues and business objectives

– Daniel Nowack

Companies joining the pledge also agree to align their business plans with the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) agenda. They will create collective, quantitative targets around supporting the social economy ahead of the 2025 World Economic Forum in Davos, according to the Schwab Foundation.

When will businesses reveal their plans to support the social economy?

A report outlining the impact of investments so far by the signatories — including the total cumulative financial contributions made — will also published in early 2025.

Daniel Nowack, head of Schwab Foundation’s Global Alliance for Social Entrepreneurship, commented: ‘The Rise Ahead Pledge presents an exciting and much-needed opportunity for the private sector to collaborate with and support social entrepreneurs worldwide.

‘The growing number of signatories reflects how social innovation is becoming a strategic business capability, addressing sustainability issues and business objectives. We encourage other companies to join the pledge and benefit from the shared value created by the social economy,’ he added.

Social innovation is focused on creating and scaling transformative solutions to improve the lives of marginalised communities.

Claudia Cahalane is investments editor at Alliance.